Fall 2014 Honor Roll

Michael Simon, executive director of the Fiedler Hillel Center at Northwestern University, was awarded the Richard M. Joel Exemplar of Excellence Award from Hillel International. The award is Hillel International's highest professional honor for Hillel professionals around the world who exemplify an outstanding commitment to their campus Hillels. Simon is recognized for his forward thinking and tireless efforts in both fostering a welcoming Jewish community and in his outreach outside that community. Simon was presented with the award at Hillel International's global assembly in Orlando in December.

Karen Alter, professor of political science in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences and professor of political science and law in the School of Law (courtesy), has received a top honor for her new book, “The New Terrain of International Law.” The book offers an in-depth look at the scope and powers of international courts operating around the world.  Alter won the 2014 best book award from the International Studies Association's (ISA) International Law Section; she also received an honorable mention for the book in the 2014 competition for ISA’s Chadwick F. Alger Prize. 

Danna Freedman, assistant professor of chemistry in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, has been selected as an award recipient to the 2014 Postdoctoral Program in Environmental Chemistry by the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation. The award provides Freedman with $120,000 over two years to appoint a postdoctoral fellow in environmental chemistry. Freedman is recognized as a leading faculty mentor in environmental chemistry. The foundation is a nonprofit organization devoted to the advancement of the chemical sciences.

The Medill Justice Project (MJP) has won a national Online Pacemaker Award from the Associated Collegiate Press (ACP) for general excellence and outstanding achievement in journalism. MJP also won fourth place in the ACP’s Multimedia Story of the Year awards in the multimedia news category for its shaken-baby syndrome documentary. MJP has received numerous awards in the past year, most notably an Investigative Reporters and Editors Award and two Society of Professional Journalists Mark of Excellence Awards in both online and offline in-depth reporting. These most recent honors are in addition to nine other local and national awards for professional and student journalists MJP has received in this year alone.

Mihnea Popa, professor of mathematics in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, has been named a fellow of the American Mathematical Society (AMS), an organization founded to further the interests of mathematical research and scholarship. Fellowships are awarded to members who have made outstanding contributions to the creation, exposition, advancement, communication and utilization of mathematics. Popa is recognized for his contributions to algebraic geometry. 

Northwestern’s Facilities Management office has been awarded a 2014 Design Excellence Award in Divine Detail from the Chicago Chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) for their work on the Charles Deering Library west entry. The previously closed off route between Northwestern University Library and Deering Library is now enhanced with updated landscaping and restoration of historic lighting. The Chicago AIA recognizes Facilities Management for their use of bronze lamp standards and sandstone, saying the materials are “integral to the historicity of the façade.”

Larry Hedges, the Board of Trustees Professor of Statistics and Education and Social Policy, has been awarded the Sells Award for Distinguished Multivariate Research from the Society of Multivariate Experimental Psychology (SMEP). The highest honor bestowed by SMEP, the award is given annually to recognize an individual who has made distinguished lifetime achievements in multivariate experimental psychology. Hedges, a professor of psychology in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, is invited to deliver an address and receive an honorarium at SMEP’s next annual meeting.